The last Assembly election in the southern state in 2013 had witnessed 71.4 per cent polling, the poll panel said.

"I want to congratulate the voters of Karnataka. Till 6 pm, the voter turnout in the state was 70 per cent. Barring a few polling stations, voting has been completed at almost all," Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha told reporters here.

"By the time we get the final figure, we will have a better turnout than the last election," he added.

The poll percentage is likely to go up as voters were seen standing in the queue at certain polling stations even after 6 pm.

The rural voters outnumbered their urban counterparts in exercising their franchise.

Voting was held in 222 of the 224 Assembly seats in Karnataka, in a three-cornered contest involving the ruling Congress, the BJP and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's JD(S).

Sinha said the highest polling of 76 per cent was recorded in Chikkaballapura and Ramanagara while Bengaluru Urban had the lowest turnout at 48 per cent.

Some 2,654 candidates, including 216 women, are in the fray for 222 seats out of a total 224. Voting was deferred in two constituencies.

Counting of votes will take place on May 15.

As many as 82,157 security personnel, including home guards, civil defence volunteers and forest guards were pressed into service, Sinha said.

The southern state had witnessed an all-time high seizure, including a huge amount of cash, in the run-up to the polls.

Sinha said the "seizure of cash, liquor and other goods was to the tune of Rs 186 crore, which was six times more than the Lok Sabha and eight times more than the Assembly election in 2013".

He said there 26 cases of paid news reported across the state, out of which 15 cases have been proved as paid news.

Repoll in Bengaluru assembly booth over faulty EVM

The Election Commission said there will be repolling at a voting booth in Bengaluru's Hebbal constituency after the EVM there suffered a malfunction.

"There will be repolling at a polling station in Lottegollahalli in Hebbal due to the malfunctioning of a ballot unit," Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here.A

The polling at this booth will be held on May 14 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., an official statement from the EC here said.

Voting across the state suffered minor glitches, with a total of 164 polling units and 157 control units of the EVMs along with 470 Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs)Awere found to be Amalfunctioning, Kumar said.